The Family : The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty

Rating:
Summary: Good God, pleople actually read this book ??
Review: Are you people crazy ?
I mean, I understand, you guys wanting to read this book, but then writing long paragraph of reviews. Do you really believe this piece of trash deserve more than one sentence review ?
As I am reading the reviews, people are actually thinking really hard for the reason why this book is so great. One guy actually wrote a 10 paragraph review. You might of thought for a moment that he was reviewing War and Peace !!!
Now that the election is over and Bush won reelection, where has Ms. Kelley gone?
I have not seen her anywhere, not on television or any book signing. Is she done with promoting her book, or is she hidding someplace knowing that her personal attacks backfired on her ?
Hey, intelligent reviewers, tell me, was this book just a one shot deal to try to destroy the candidacy of GW, or just a joke on the American people.


Rating:
Summary: Kitty Kelly is trashy and so are her books
Review: Everyones family has skeletons in the closet and Im sure the Bush's are no exception but I dont like that she wrote this book about my man George W. Bush and kin. I love GWB and I think he has been a great Prez. I tried reading this and it was so blatently full of BS! All her "interviews" were bunk. If you want to read about POTUSA and scandals read "Dereliction of Duty." That is enough to make me vote GOP the rest of my life.

Rating:
Summary: Typical Kitty Kelley
Review: I've read other books by this author, and wasn't particularly impressed by her writing, though I found them entertaining, gossipy and unchallenging. It's difficult to tell what is fact and what is bias, though many of the statements she makes here have been previously alleged by some credible journalists. Great writing this is not, but it is an interesting read given the subject matter. If it weren't January in California, I'd characterize this as a good beach book. I doubt I'd want to pay full price for this, though, given the price of books these days.

Rating:
Summary: This Book Deserves More Respect Than It Has Received
Review: Kitty Kelley rose to fame on the basis of her meticulous research of pop culture figures -- Jacqueline Onassis, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor. While her reporting has been controversial, it also has been thorough.
Yet she is treated as if she is on the level of the "National Enquirer." This is wrong. Ms. Kelley deserves more respect, and her book on the Bush family is a good example of why.
"The Family" is a gripping portrait of the intellectual and ethical decline of a once strongly moral family. After reading it, I had no doubt that Prescott Bush is turning in his grave over the misdeeds of his grandson, the current president.
Had the mainstream press been more diligent in its reporting of the Bush family's character and conduct, our country might not be in the miserable predicament it faces for the next four years.

Rating:
Summary: Bush Bashers Beware!
Review: KK has amassed an amazing collection of anecdotes, scrupulously documented and catalogued, which depict the First Family in all their humanity...pretty fairly and balanced, to be quite honest. I was expecting more of a gleeful Bush bashing, and was surprised to see a much more objective presentation than alot of the press had led me to expect. The Bushes, for over a century, are shown to be merely human...fallible...and more and more unimpressive with each generation.

Our current president's inane malaprops, bungles and gaffes (One of his professors summed it up superbly: "I did not judge him to be stupid, just spoiled and undisciplined." His mother's [...]-icisms, etc are all neatly and amusingly presented. Well...it could be funny if it weren't so sad. But it just proves that they're as dysfunctional as any other "normal American family."

This often reads like a Puzo novel, an enthusiastic and page turning saga where even the mud slinging is handled with considerable panache.

Check out the last Paragraph on Page 558. It sums it all up PERFECTLY.

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Summary: I am against all personal attacks, and tabloid journalism
Review: Let me just say I found this book intresting and a good read. I am also a registered Democrat who firmly disagrees with the administration's policies and has serious questions about whether George W Bush has shown the charcter throughout his life nessecary for a President. However, I find this kind of tabloid journalism which personally attacks peoples private failings such as their past drug use or sex life, distasteful and outright dangerous. There are many poorly supported sensational claims which have no bearing on President Bush's fitness for President, but are, I am convinced, merely intended to sell copies of this book. I am disturbed by this tone in our public discourse today and while I find questions about the President's Vietnam service somewhat pertinent especially as he wraps himself in the flag and war imagery today, I do not care that he was a cocaine user many user whatsoever as long as he is clean and sober today. I was disturbed by the personal attacks on Bill Clinton (the only one of which was relevant was his disrespect for his agenda, his family, and the office of the Presidency during his affair with Monica Lewinsky in the white house) and I am disturbed by these attacks on George W Bush, who has clearly put his past behind him. The best parts of this book are the ones that talk about the Bush families ambition for power, the internal dynamics of one of Americas most powerful families, and not the personal attacks on our President. I disagree with President Bush because I do not like his policies and I think he is a poor leader, but once again this book is tabloid journalism which has little to do with his policies and everything to do with unsubstantiated gossip about his families dirty secrets.

Rating:
Summary: The Real Bush Family Exposed
Review: The public relations industry in this country has perfected our perception of the rich and powerful, especially political families. So the public generally sees George H.W. Bush as an elder stateman devoted to public service, Barbara Bush as a grandmotherly patriarch and George W. as an aw-shucks, unpretentious guy. But, as set forth in this book, we know very little about this family.

Kitty Kelly identifies most of her sources for the negative allegations about the Bush family. This is not one of those books relying heavily on unnamed sources. I was surprised at the number of people who were willing to share their stories on the record.

The first President Bush is portrayed as a power hungry but second rate politician who was totally obsessed with becoming president but did not have the credentials other than a great Rolodex and a series of one-year presidential appointments through the 1970's for which many people stated on the record that he was not really qualified for, including foreign policy positions. Running for president in 1988 and 1992, senior Bush emphasized family values even though his politicking over the years separated him from his children. It also seems clear that throughout much of his public life in the 1970s and 1980s he had a longtime mistress, an open secret in Washington. Selected as vice president for political reasons, Ronald and Nancy Reagan wanted nothing to do with the Bushes. In this capacity, George senior lied about his involvement concerning the Iran-Contra scandal which could have brought down the Reagan administration. Had the public known about Bush's involvement in the scandal prior to the 1988 election, the family dynasty could have been aborted. I give this book four stars because Kitty Kelly, if anything, held back in her criticism of Bush senior's beloved Gulf War. While she does criticize Bush's motives for this war, there is much more to say about this war which she does not share with us. Kevin Phillips' book on the Bush dynasty fills us in on this topic.

As for Barbara Bush, the book paints a portrait that is quite negative, that of a truly vindictive and sharp-tounged woman who held grudges and treated nearly everyone around her like dirt. One source for this allegation is George W. Bush.

That George W. had the guts to run for president after only 5 years in public office and an otherwise undistinguished life marked by excessive drinking, drug use and adolescent-type irresponsibility proves that this is a family that deems itself entitled to only the very best, including the highest office in the land. That the American people think George W. is a man of honor and virtue says much about the public relations apparatus which has molded this family's image. Comments from George W.'s former schoolmates are worth the price of admission. Nearly all of them speak on the record. Think of the craziest drunk and the worst student you went to college with. Now imagine that person is elected president. That's George W.

Many of this book's critics either did not read this book or cannot handle the truth. Faith in the Bush family has reached religious proportions in this country. Does Kitty Kelly rely on a few sources whose motivations can be attacked? Probably. That is the case with any unauthorized biography, especially one chronicling the Bush family, which will always have friends in high places. Thank God for the unauthorized biography.

Rating:
Summary: The Family : The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty
Review: They have wielded enormous financial power and dominated world politics for more than half a century. They have been appointed to positions of great power and have been elected as governors, congressmen, senators and presidents. They have shaped our past and, with our country at war under the leadership of their number one son, they are, more critically than ever, shaping our future. As the Bush family has risen to dominance, so too they have been master orchestrators of their own public image, acting and operating under the shield of privacy their money and status have always afforded them. Until now. Number One bestselling author and investigative biographer Kitty Kelley has closely examined the lives of Jacqueline Onassis, Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, and the British Royal family. Now the First Lady of unauthorized biography reckons with the first family of the United States-and the result is at once a rich and shocking history and a very human portrait of the world's most powerful dynasty. An important work on wealth, power, and class in America, The Family is rich in texture, probing in its psychological insight, revealing in its political and financial detail, and stunning in the patterns that emerge and expose the Bush dynasty as it has never before been exposed.

Rating:
Summary: The only critics of this book are those who haven't read it.
Review: This book is a FUN ride! Kitty Kelly is a Cant-put-down kind of author. Her storytelling of the Bush Family dynasty mixes politics and personality brilliantly. For those of us who have been careful observers of the Bush dynasty since George HW was spitting blood at his opponents in the primary (when he was still pro-choice because that's what's got him the most votes then), this massive history brings together many interesting facts and memories. While kitty kelly truly likes and admires the head of the bush dynasty, she sees the following generations...george hw and george w.... as vicious, take no prisoners polliticians who simply want power for the sake of power. She shows them as men with no vision for america or humanity, no depth or compassion other than mouthing the phrases that lost souls looking to fox news for truth will provide. She LIKES people like Ronald Reagan, who while not the sharpest knife in the drawer at least wanted to make the world a better place, though many of us would disagree with his opinion of BETTER. Not so the bush men. Though the women don't get off so easily either. "Bar", america's grandmother, is a caustic tongued meany who taught her sons how the cuss people out in public and never got over her relationship of mutual hatred with nancy reagan. Page by page there is one vignette after another that rounds out this family of power seekers. Those who give this book less than three stars have not read it. You can tell that from the lack of detail in their reviews which practically parrot each other, they are so desperate for content. This book was reviewed by four lawyers, included interviews with over a 1000 people, has almost 100 pages of footnotes at the end and not one bush family member can cite one example of a mistruth.

Rating:
Summary: Scarier than the Munsters
Review: This well-researched and documented book is a valuable resource for any of us trying to determine what forces produced the lying sociopath who currently occupies the White House. This book reveals that the Bushist disregard for the truth extends back to Prescott Bush, who roundly denied having supported birth control despite the fact that his name appeared on the masthead of Planned Parenthood's first fundraising effort. Later lies include GHW Bush denying having knowledge of Iran-Contra despite records indicating his attendance at meetings where the matter was discussed, Barbara Bush's denials of Neil's "ethical disability" in the Silverado savings and loan scandal, and of course the lies GW Bush told to launch his illegal war of aggression against Iraq. Basically the Bushes are shown to be one of the most dishonest and dishonorable families ever to hold power in America; their fondness for taking the low road is so scary, in fact, that they make the Munsters look like the Partridge Family. Other charges supported here include ignorance, extreme snobbery, and antisemitism. Let us hope America and the world can survive these monsters, who deserve banishment to a very special Elba -- perhaps in the neighborhood of Kennebunkport -- all their own.